CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Mr ROB MITCHELL (McEwen) (10:32): He's out the door. The member might want to remember it was his government that refused to pay veterans for three years. Mr Caldwell interjecting— Mr ROB MITCHELL: It was his government that said there was no value in supporting veterans.
So you're a moron. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Fadden! Mr ROB MITCHELL: Back into your cave!
I rise today to stand with the Doreen RSL and veterans that I represent. Men and women who have supported and served this country deserve not just gratitude but respect and support. For over a decade, during Liberal-National coalition governments, Doreen RSL has been seeking a permanent home.
A $1.6 million federal investment was secured in good faith to deliver exactly that at Brookwood Community Centre to ensure our growing veteran community in Doreen and Mernda were able to access supports, from a chat with other veterans to accessing advocacy and mental health support for their complex needs. But, sadly, 12 months on, after this was secured, the City of Whittlesea has acted in bad faith and been disingenuous about accommodating the RSL as planned, with a blatant mix of unfair, impossible hurdles and a financial penalty that is ridiculous by any means.
By stripping away the very revenue streams, food, beverages and community engagement activities that keep an RSL alive, the City of Whittlesea is setting the RSL up to fail. The council deliberately misled the community on the wants of the RSL. First, the financials: council says the entire building is expected to raise $57,000 a year in rent, but it wants the RSL to pay $44,000 for less than half the building.
Work that out—seriously! Council imposed time limits on opening hours for the RSL: 'It's 8pm, ladies and lads. Get out!
It's time to go home.' Yet you, I or the member for Solomon can get 130 of our friends and have a party with drinking, music and all that, right through to 11 o'clock. Why is the RSL being treated so bad? This is imposing a 'no alcohol, no food, no beverages' policy on the RSL.
I mean, what a joke! How is the RSL to raise funds if it's not allowed to even make cost recovery? Strangest is this imposition: the banning of sports on the TVs at the RSL!
Council itself notes: Doreen RSL has indicated that gaming machines are not proposed … even without gaming or wagering facilities, a sports bar-style configuration would shift the facility's character toward a hospitality-focused model, which is not aligned with the intended purpose of … community centres. That is a deliberate falsehood by the council. It's shameful, and ratepayers are disgusted.
What troubles ratepayers even worse is the preferential treatment afforded to a private, for-profit dance school operator. It is run by a former employee of the council—the same council we were given this funding by. I sincerely hope the relationship has nothing to do with the City of Whittlesea's preferential treatment for a former employee of theirs.
Then the co-owner said in the Northern Star Weekly, 'How can you have a group of mostly male veterans in one room and young girls in the other?' I am speechless. Our veterans deserve better than this vile insinuation. They deserve respect, transparency and a council willing to stand with him and deliver, as agreed.